Thunder
by Hatsu Yukiya
Summary: Being paired with IA wasn't really what Lily had in mind when the Vocaloids had to double up as roommates, especially when it comes out that IA is afraid of thunder. During a storm, in the middle of the night. This is just fantastic. Oneshot, slight IA/Lily.


It was the storm that woke Lily up. With the crashes of thunder and rain pounding against the window, it didn't really make for good sleeping. She thought it was weird how the Vocaloids, being androids, even needed to sleep (sure, they might be fully sentient, but come on, they were robots and that's all there really was to it). It was one of the things she just would never understand about herself and the others. But, no matter. Lily settled herself back in bed and decided to try and just get back to sleep.

Until she noticed someone standing right by her bed.

Lily jackknifed into a sitting position when she recognized who it was, heart pounding.

"Jesus _Christ_, IA!" she yelped, "You scared the crap out of me! What are you doing?!"

"I'm sorry," IA replied, not sounding very apologetic at all.

"Okay, now answer the second question. What are you doing?"

The other girl twisted the hem of the over large T-shirt she wore as pajamas, biting her lip, and Lily was surprised she was actually seeing a display of emotion from IA. She was usually so low-key and stoic, or spaced out at least. And now she looked scared.

"I don't like the thunder," she replied finally.

Lily was grateful the darkness hid her eye-rolling. "The thunder," she echoed flatly.

IA nodded, and Lily sighed. Why was she sharing a room with this person? There were so many Vocaloids now, the directors of Crypton apparently decided it was a good idea to have everyone double up for bedrooms and had them draw names out of a bowl for their partners. It could be worse, Lily supposed— poor SeeU was stuck in with Meiko the habitual drunk, likewise with Tone Rion and Haku, and you really had to pity Len for being paired up with Rin all the time. IA wasn't so bad, she was just very strange, and Lily often had to deal with, well, situations like this.

"IA," she began, "how old are you, exactly?"

"Seventeen physically, but if we're going by technicalities—"

Lily groaned and flopped back onto her bed. "Aria on the Planetes, you. Are. A. Robot! Thunder shouldn't scare you, and you shouldn't be waking me up in the middle of the night to inform me that it does!"

"I didn't wake you up, the thunder itself did," IA pointed out.

"So what, you were just standing by my bed, waiting for the off chance that I would wake up?"

"Yes," the other blonde answered without a hint of shame. That was one of the things wrong with IA. She lacked certain boundaries and never seemed to understand that a lot of things she said were strange. She was like a child, and Lily often felt like her babysitter. Which was ridiculous, because IA usually hung out with other recent members of Vocaloid 3 (like Ring Suzune, Tone Rion, and Yuzuki Yukari) during the day and they rarely ever saw each other before nightfall. Lily usually stayed with Gumi, Miki, Mizki, and Yuma. They rarely saw each other during the day, if ever.

Lily sighed again. _Why me? _

"So what do you want me to do about it?" she asked, feeling exhaustion creeping up. She glanced at her clock. Two twenty-eight in the morning, fantastic. "I can't stop the thunder."

"I know," IA said, sounding small and hesitant again. "I don't know what I expected you to do, I just was...really scared, and..."

"Why didn't you go to one of your friends? Like Yukari."

"Well, you were right here, and..." The rest of the sentence was so quiet, Lily had to strain to hear it, "And you're my friend too..."

Thunder and lightning crashed outside, briefly illuminating the room in white light. IA audibly cringed and inched closer to Lily, involuntarily reaching a hand out for comfort. Lily stared at her and, in an unexpected moment of pity, grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the bed. IA's blue-green eyes widened in surprise but she didn't waste any time in leaning up close to the other blonde.

"Alright, fine," Lily conceded, feeling extremely embarrassed. "I don't know why I'm doing this, but...go ahead and sleep here tonight. I don't care."

"R-Really?" IA's face broke into a wide, relieved smile, and Lily caught herself blushing and coughed awkwardly.

"Only for tonight!" she snapped sharply. "And you can't go around telling anyone! We're just friends, too, so it's not like it means anything!"

"Oh no, I'm perfectly fine with this just as friends!" Lily had never heard IA sound so energetic, especially after she had just been so frightened. "Thank you!"

"Yeah, whatever."

As IA snuggled up close to her, squeaking a bit as thunder sounded once more and wrapping her arms around Lily's waist, Lily found herself feeling like this honestly wasn't so bad. The other girl was warm and surprisingly soft, for an android, and the way IA was so dependent on her was kind of...adorable.

However, if IA told anybody about this, Lily would personally hunt her down and shove a microphone down her throat. She had a reputation to maintain.


End file.
